Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front
by kindervelter
Summary: In Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1, "Cold Front", our heroes discover their happy endings might not be as happy as they seem following the events of Emma and Hook's time travel adventure. As the group attempts to work through their relationship issues and solve the mystery of a sinister new figure in their midst one thing becomes clear: all is not well in Storybrooke, Maine.
1. Chapter 1

**Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front**

**Introduction: **

**. . . . . . . . . . . .**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time in any way! Just love the show and love speculating on what's coming next! Enjoy!**_

_**. . . . . . . . . . . **_

_"Legend tells of a being so powerful that nothing could contain it. A creature of darkness so fearsome and so awful that it devoured all light, extinguished all love and destroyed all joy. A beast so horrific that no power could defeat it, save for that of a little girl with a pure heart. Years ago, some say before the beginning of time itself, the beast and the girl were bound together, twin fates sealed in the stars. The beast, Baba Yaga she was called, would do terrible damage to the world and bring it to the brink of destruction before being stopped. Some say she escaped from another land, some say she has existed since the dawn of time. Still others say that this being, this Baba Yaga born of darkness, was the first Dark One-created from the molten hatred of every living soul, springing to life from the Dark One's Vault on a treacherous winter night. Her true origin remains unknown, as does her fate. Legend has faded to myth, and myth into folklore, and now all that remains of this gruesome tale is the stories; the little girl, the Vault, the darkness. Tales told on a cold winter night to-"_

Emma swan closed the book in her lap and tossed it onto the coffee table next to her. She'd had enough ghost stories for one lifetime. Besides which, now was a time to celebrate. Zelena was defeated, she and Hook were home, and Storybrooke had been saved-again.

"Emma?" Charming called from the upstairs of the loft. "Could you come take your brother for a second?" That was going to take some getting used to. Emma had never had a lot of family before and now she had parents her own age and brother thirty years younger than her. It wasn't necessarily bad. It was just… weird. The Savior stood and mounted the stairs quickly, intercepting Charming at the top and scooping her baby brother out of his arms.

"Thanks," Charming said, wiping a few beads of sweat off of his forehead. He'd never really done the whole "father" thing and was, apparently, not all that much of a natural at it. Emma laughed at her father's seeming ineptitude and made her way back down the stairs, sitting on the couch with her brother in her lap. Charming joined her a moment later.

"So… how's parenthood going?" Emma asked with a light chuckle.

"Let's just say it was easier the first time around… I wish we could just skip to when he was twenty-eight like we did with you," Charming tried to joke, but the memories of her abandonment still stung a little. She knew it had been for the best, that everything had worked out in the end, but that didn't mean she couldn't regret what might have been.

"I imagine," Emma said, trying not to let Charming in on her sadness without much success.

"I'm sorry, Emma. More than you can ever know."

"It's alright, Dad. I understand. It just might not be something I can ever totally get over," Emma tried to explain. She knew it wouldn't make sense to him, but there were some wounds you just always kept with you. "But hey, this isn't a time to feel sad. You've just had a baby, we've saved the town, Hook and I managed to not change history too badly…" she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"You're right… I just wish I knew why I felt so… strange. Like… like something bad is coming," Charming said pensively, taking Neal back from Emma's arms and holding him close.

"I know what you mean. I've got the strangest feeling that it's not quite over," she said. It seemed, at least to her, that the whole town was feeling that way… like perhaps the real battle was just about to start.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Hook tapped his hook impatiently as he waited for Granny to bring out his order. He was in a foul mood, made fouler by the fact that he didn't know what exactly was bothering him. _I should be overjoyed! _He thought to himself. _Emma Swan made out with me. I've spent years chasing her and now… now I know she wants me too. _

His mental pep talk did little to improve his mood. He was resigning himself to the idea of brooding in silence when he heard the bell ring at the front door and turned his head to see none other than Robin Hood walk in and take a seat next to him.

"If you're looking for something quick I'd suggest anywhere _but _here, mate," Hook tried to joke.

"I heard that!" Granny shouted from the kitchen. A moment later Ruby appeared with Hook's food and set it down in front of him, giving the dashing pirate a quick smile.

"Frankly I've not had much of an appetite the past few days… not since…" Robin Hood trailed off.

"Not since Emma and I brought your wife back from the dead," Hook said flatly, not wanting to beat around the bush.

"Well… yes, quite honestly. I know I should be grateful-how often do you get a second chance with your first love?-but I'm just feeling… troubled," Robin Hood tried to explain, knowing very well he was making next to no sense.

"Ay, I think that's going around, mate," Hook said, biting into his food and taking a sip of his beer. "I'm having this terrible feeling that we're headed for something far, far worse than Zelena."

The conversation trailed off their, both men lost in thought… lost in fear.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Snow White didn't expect to find herself shooting arrows in the woods after giving birth, yet all the same she was doing so. It had started out innocently enough-she wanted to get back some of the physique she'd had before getting pregnant-but it had slowly morphed into something else… a way of coping.

It infuriated Snow that she had to feel so unhappy when there was so much to feel happy about. She had her infant son, her grown daughter, a town full of friends, a great husband, and a stepmother who, for the first time in upwards of forty years, wasn't trying to kill her. By all accounts this was the best Snow's life had ever been.

_Why do you feel so scared then? _Snow asked herself, sending an arrow flying into a nearby tree. She willed herself to feel happy, to feel _something, _but found she only had one emotion left: dread.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Snow White felt as though her "happy ending" was about to come crashing down around her.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Belle French-Belle Gold now, actually-twisted the ring around her finger absentmindedly, her attention drifting between it and the book in her lap. It was an old, dusty thing she'd found a couple of copies of in the back of the library a few days. She gave one of them to Emma, thinking she might enjoy a read from her native world, and was just now getting into her own copy of it.

Unfortunately, Belle found it difficult to get any reading done with her mind in the state it was. She felt wholly distracted and really couldn't put her finger on why, which only added to her overall state of distress.

She was married now, for God's sakes! She should be over the moon with joy! After all the years of losing and finding each other she and Rumplestiltksin were together. They were married. They were supposed to be happy! Why then, Belle wondered, did she feel so decidedly _un_happy?

"Belle?" Rumplestiltskin's voice called to her from the outer room of the shop. Grateful for the distraction she put the book down and rushed to see why he was calling her.

"What's up?" she asked, joining him behind the shop's counter. There was no one in the store, so she guessed he was just lonely and wanted to talk.

"Are you… feeling alright, Belle?" Rumple asked concernedly. Belle was shocked at the question and took a moment before answering.

"What? Yes I'm-I'm fine… I'm great actually!" she perked up as if she was just now remembering how happy she was supposed to be acting. "We're married! I couldn't be happier!" She cracked a smile, leaning in to kiss him.

"I am too, Belle. I just wanted to make sure you were alright after… well, after everything," Rumple said, grabbing her hands.

"I'm really am, Rumple. We've found each other. After all these years we've finally found each other. No more trouble, no more lies, no more secrets," Belle said, giving him a sad smile that spoke to the years she'd spent in misery.

"Yes, Belle. No more lies, no more secrets."

But that was the problem. There still _were _lies and secrets. They both knew there were, teeming under the surface and just waiting to escape, to explode all over their happiness. And, truth be known, it was slowly killing them both. Rumple was finding it harder and harder to live with the ways he'd deceived Belle and Belle was finding it harder and harder to ignore her nagging suspicion that their whole wedding had been a pretext to something else.

One thing was sure, though neither of them were willing to say it just yet; something bad was coming. They didn't know where or when or what, but somewhere in their hearts they knew that their "happy ending" was about to turn sour.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Mom?" Henry's voice trailed into the big, empty mansion. He dropped his bag by the door and made his way into the rotunda, listening for any signs of life. Finally, after a moment, he heard some muffled sobbing come from his room and bounded up the stairs.

"He-Henry?" Regina asked, looking up from the old pillow of his that she was burying her tear stained face in.

"Mom!" Henry said, running over to her and hugging her. She threw the pillow to the side and returned it, grateful for the embrace.

"Henry, what are you doing here. You should be with Emma," Regina scolded, though the tears rolling down her cheeks made the punishment seem far less convincing.

"Mom, Emma doesn't need me right now. You do," Henry said, sitting next to her on the bed. "What happened?" he asked, not having been present at the diner when Marion returned from the dead to snatch away her happiness.

"It's Robin Hood… and it's complicated."

"We've got time."

"It's his wife. Long ago-really, really long ago-I did something terrible to his wife. But last night Emma and Hook brought her back. They brought her here, to Storybrooke. And now she and Robin can finally be together," Regina explained, trying to put on a brave face.

"You mean… you killed her?"

"In another timeline I did. But no, not in this version of reality. Here she's alive and well," Regina said, conflicted. Of course, as the now un-evil queen, she was glad that someone she'd once killed had been found alive and well… she just wished it wasn't her boyfriend's wife.

That, however, was only one aspect of her sadness. What really got to Regina Mills was the fact that she and Robin Hood were only together in the first place because she'd been cruel enough to _kill _his wife. All that pain he'd talked about, all those horrible things he'd been through, it was all because of her. And that killed Regina.

"Mom… I'm sorry," was all Henry could manage. He took her hand in his, trying to offer some comfort the only way he knew how.

"It's OK…" But, in point of fact, Regina Mills had a distinct feeling that it would _not _be OK. Something was happening in Storybrooke. It seemed to Regina that things weren't quite as happy as they appeared. It seemed that a cold front was moving in.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The young blonde woman stumbled out of the stable, collapsing to the frozen ground on her hands and knees. She fought to catch her breath, sucking in clean air that she'd been denied for so long. She fought for clarity, for some semblance of thought to hang on to. Finally, through the haze of confusion and magic that was swirling around her mind, the young woman latched onto two ideas: the first was that there was someone she had to save. The second was that something very, very bad was about to happen.

**Author's Notes:**

** -Did you like it?**

** -Reviews are welcome!**

** -Frozen coming into the show: inspired or just a cash grab?**

** -How great would it be for Idina Menzel to actually **_**play **_**Elsa?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front**

**. . . . . . . . . . . .**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time in any way! Just love the show and love speculating on what's coming next! Enjoy!**_

_**. . . . . . . . . . . **_

CHAPTER 2

**New Orleans, Present Day**

"Thea, can you pass me that plate?" Kate asked her fellow waitress, reaching out her hand expectantly. Thea picked it up with her free hand and slid it over to Kate, who grabbed it skillfully and rushed off to deliver it to the customer who'd ordered it. A moment later Kate rejoined Thea behind the counter and the pair of women observed the diner sprawled out before them.

The Weary Traveller wasn't the nicest diner in the world… far from it, in fact. The stuffing in the booths was coming out, most of the chairs had wobbly legs, and the shelves were in desperate need of dusting. Still though, it was _their _diner and they were proud of it… at least, most of the time they were. For some reason, on that particular morning, Kate wasn't feeling particularly proud of anything… in fact she felt downright upset.

Trouble was, she couldn't quite put her finger on why. It was like something was bothering her that she wasn't able to remember. She felt like there was something important… something really, _really _important that she should remember.

"Are you alright, Kate?" Thea asked her friend who'd been staring off into space for the last few moments. Kate snapped back to reality at her friend's voice, trying to hide how upset she was feeling inside. Little did she know that the feeling of foreboding was welling up in her friend in much the same way it was in her. Thea felt it to; something bad was coming.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just too early for me to be up, that's all," Kate joked, turning and disappearing back into the kitchen. The feeling of uneasiness lingered in the air as Thea, at the mention of the time, looked at her watch. It was 8:15 a.m.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Storybrooke, Present Day**

"Mom, it's snowing!" Henry said, trying desperately to wake Emma Swan up. The pair had been sleeping in one of Granny's rooms while looking for their own place and the constant, close proximity wasn't doing much for Emma's sleep schedule.

"It's July, kid, there's no way it's snowing. Go back to sleep," the Savior yawned, shooing him away with one hand and rolling over to her other side.

"Mom no, it really is. Just look!" It was becoming clear to Emma that Henry wasn't going to let this go. With a sigh she rolled over and resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to get any more sleep. Groggily she slipped on her slippers and made her way to the window. Still half asleep she pulled open the curtain and saw-

Snow. It was snowing. In Maine. In the middle of July.

"How is this… how is this possible?" Emma asked, feeling a bit uneasy despite Henry's obvious joy. Something was definitely up.

"Who cares? Let's go," Henry said, already pulling on his coat and boots.

"You go ahead, kid. I'll catch up with you in a minute," Emma said, distracted. Without another word Henry was out the door.

Emma poured herself a cup of coffee, grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand, and took a seat at the small table in the room. Hook was who she really wanted to talk to, but he didn't have a phone… or a place to live, for that matter. One thing Emma had forgotten about in the past few years of fighting dragons and slaying witches was what it was exactly to be normal… she guessed Hook was feeling the same way.

Since she couldn't call him she made up her mind to just go and find him. Storybrooke wasn't all that big and there were only a few places Hook went anyway: the docks, occasionally the library, sometimes the pawnshop, but most of the time Granny's. She'd start her search there.

Sure enough when Emma pulled into the parking lot she saw Hook inside, wearing one of the shirts she'd convinced her father to give to the poor pirate. She might love him, but she definitely didn't love his fashion choices.

"Emma," Snow said when her daughter walked in, somewhat surprised to see her. "Come sit with us." Snow and Charming were seated across from Hook, who was playing gleefully with the baby.

"I'm surprised you let him near Neal with that… thing," Emma joked, sliding into the booth next to the reformed pirate.

"Contrary to what you might believe, Miss Swan, I'm actually quite good with kids," Hook said, passing the child to Emma.

"So, you two are…" Charming said, trying not to be presumptuous while also being desperate for answers.

"I, uh, we, uh, we don't know what we are, dad," Emma said awkwardly, looking to Killian for some help.

"Look, mate, it's too early in our relationship for us to say just yet," Hook said, trying to respect Emma. If he could have things his way they'd already be married, but he knew Swan well enough to know she needed time to open up to him. Snow grabbed Charming's arm and gave him a warning look, telling him it was probably best if they drop the topic.

"Anyway," Emma began, steering the conversation in a different direction. "Snow… in July? Is that even possible?"

"Says the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming," Hook teased. Emma swatted him on the arm playfully.

"Look, I'm just… worried. I keep having this terrible feeling," Emma tried to explain, but anyway she said it made her sound totally crazy.

"Emma, I know. I felt that way for a long time. Every time something good would happen I would just wait for something to come along and ruin it. But you can't live like that; no one can," Snow said, kissing her husband affectionately.

"I know. You're probably right. I just haven't felt quite right since we came back through the portal… since Zelena died, really," Emma said.

"If you suspect there's more to her death than meets the eye I'm happy to accompany you to investigate," Killian said, jumping at the chance to spend some time alone with Emma.

"Sure, let's head back to the station," Emma said, standing up and pacing her baby brother back to her mother. "We'll call you guys if we find anything."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The blonde woman was still too afraid to leave the barn. Her memories were still too hazy, though some things were beginning to drift back… just not the things she actually _needed _to remember.

She remembered, for instance, that she came from a far away land… from a far away time. She remembered an old woman, a horrible old woman and a little girl. She remembered dreaming while she was inside the bottle, though of what or for how long escaped her.

That was the problem. She couldn't remember what she needed to… she couldn't stop the storm inside. The barn was now frozen solid, magical ice streaming through the air, chilling the rafters and killing the plant life. Soon everything would be frozen and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

The girl didn't remember much, but she did remember this: nothing she touched ever, ever survived.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rumplestiltskin grabbed the clock on his nightstand and stared deeply into the flashing red numbers. _8:15 a.m. Time to get up anyway. _His free hand drifted over to Belle's sleeping form next to him, his fingers playing through her soft, brown hair. He set the clock back down and looked up at the dark ceiling of their room.

He didn't sleep much anymore. Not since Zelena. Not since the wedding. Belle's words flashed through his mind, the ones she'd said to him all those years ago…

_"You could have had happiness if you'd just believed that someone could want you." _

The cruellest part was, someone _did _want him. The only person that really mattered wanted him and he'd thrown it away for the sake of revenge. It killed him in a way no knife ever could; to be with the one you love and not be able to enjoy it.

He wanted to tell her. More than anything he just wanted Belle to know what he'd done. He wanted her to comfort him, to forgive him, to see the good in him like she always had. Yet somehow he knew this time was different. This time he'd _used _her. This time he'd _betrayed _her. There was no coming back from that.

Slowly, skillfully he extricated his limbs from the covers and got out of bed, making his way down the hallway into the kitchen. He switched on the light and poured himself a glass of tea in the hopes that he could drown his sorrows-his guilt-in it.

He'd only drunk about half of it when he heard light footsteps coming down the hall towards him. _Belle._

"Rumple?" Belle's voice called to him sleepily. On a normal day Belle would have already been at the library, but it was customary for the newlyweds to sleep in a little on Saturdays.

"Just drinking some tea, dearie," Rumple said. Belle poured herself a glass and set it down next to him before scanning the room.

"Some things never change, do they?" she chuckled.

"How so?"

"You never remember to open the curtains." Shaking her head Belle went over to the window and drew back the thick curtain, bathing the room in light. "That's better," she said, smiling widely and taking a seat next to the Dark One… next to her husband.

"Belle?" Rumple asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"Yes," she said, still feeling a little tired. He pointed out the window and her gaze followed his slender finger.

"Is that… snow?"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thirty minutes later Belle and Rumple walked into a very crowded Granny's and fought their way through the crowd to join Snow and Charming at their table.

"So, enjoying married life?" Snow asked once they'd settled themselves. The two shared a somewhat nervous glance before answering.

"Belle and I fought a very long time to be together…" Rumple said cryptically after a long pause. Belle was looking sadly at her hands and wringing a napkin in them; hardly happy bride material.

"Well if you two ever need to talk we're here for you," Charming said, sharing a kiss with his wife.

"Thank you," Belle said, then, wishing to change the topic, added: "And how is it to be parents again? You didn't have to deal with the baby the first time around!" she exclaimed.

"We won't lie and say it's easy, but when you have true love anything is possible," Charming said, his words hanging in the air for a moment. Belle and Rumple shared another sad glance, both feeling as though their "true love" wasn't as truthful as it might be.

"Well I imagine miss Swan has been of some use. I'm sure she knows a fair bit more about children having grown up the way she… had to," Rumple said, finally breaking the most recent in a long string of awkward silences.

"Yes, where is Emma?" Belle asked innocently, unaware of how her husband was going to react to the answer.

"She's still worried about what happened to Zelena. She doesn't think her death was quite as self-inflicted as it appeared," Charming explained.

"I think she's just having trouble accepting the idea that everything might be going alright for once. There's no battle to fight, no villain to slay," Snow said, looking happily at her friends around her in the diner.

"There is the troubling matter of the snow in July, however," Rumple said, not about to let Snow feel _too _happy.

"Well if I know Emma she'll have figured out what's causing that by now. Maybe you two should head down to the station and see if she and Hook need any relationship advice," Charming joked.

"The station? Seems like an odd place for those two to be," Belle commented.

"Not really. Like I said, Emma's still worried about Zelena so they went back to check the security tapes," Snow said. All eyes moved to Rumple as a shudder visibly moved through his body.

"Rumple, are you alright?" Belle asked.

"Fine dear… just, uh… I think I've left the kettle on at home. Probably best if I pop back and check." He was lying and Belle could tell… the question was, how long had he been lying for? Until she was certain she didn't want to start causing problems.

"Alright then, I'll see you at home," Belle said, kissing him goodbye. He hastily kissed her back before disappearing through the front door, hooking a left turn, and heading straight for the police station.

**Author's Notes:**

** -Did you like it?**

** -Reviews are welcome!**

** -Frozen coming into the show: inspired or just a cash grab?**

** -How great would it be for Idina Menzel to actually **_**play **_**Elsa?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front**

CHAPTER 3

"Alright, Swan, what are we looking for?" Killian Jones asked as he and Emma pushed past the doors of the station, grateful for the reprieve from the cold it offered. Emma disentangled her neck from her scarf and threw it down on her desk before answering.

"Anything out of the ordinary… I want to check that security tape again, for starters," Emma replied, pulling a chair over to the camera and removing the tape from it… Storybrooke, it seemed, had yet to go totally digital. "Turn the TV on, would ya?" Emma asked as she hopped down off the chair with the tape in hand. Killian pressed his hook into the button and the ancient television hummed to life.

"We already watched this, love. I doubt if we're going to see anything different the second time," Killian said, exasperated.

"Well there's no harm in checking…" Emma said, searching for the right words. "I just think there's something… off about all of this." Killian shrugged as Emma put the tape in and the familiar picture came up on the screen.

"See? The witch's demise was the fault of no one but herself," Killian said, pointing his hook at the screen. The video replayed itself, looping over the moment time after time.

"Wait a minute…" Emma said, kneeling down and looking more closely at the screen. "See there? That ripple in the screen?" Emma jammed her finger into the screen as the tape played past the moment that Zelena turned herself to stone. To the pirate and the savior's surprise the ripple seemed to grow at Emma's touch.

"I'm no expert on technology in this realm, but I'd hazard that that isn't normal behavior?" Killian asked, kneeling next to his… come to think of it, he didn't quite know _what _Emma was to him now. Girlfriend? Partner? Frenemy?

"Definitely not," Emma said, oblivious to Killian's thoughts. "I wonder…" She pressed her whole palm to the screen and the ripple grew, encompassing the entire thing. She removed it a moment later and the screen returned to normal. "Killian, put your hand on here." Killian did as commanded and placed his good palm on the screen just as Emma had; nothing happened.

"That's odd, I gather, that your hand makes it ripple and mine doesn't?" Killian asked, removing his hand from the screen.

"Definitely. I know I'm new to this, but I think it might have something to do with…"

"Magic." Killian finished the sentence for her. "Namely, the fact that you possess it and I do not."

"Well… yeah. What else would explain my hand changing the picture and yours not? The question," Emma began, biting down on her tongue while she thought. "Is who did something magical to this tape? It must have been affected in some way or it wouldn't respond to my magic at all."

"I guess we'll find out when you reverse the magic done to this box," Killian said, tapping the television with his hook. Emma suppressed a laugh at his calling it a "box" and placed her hand back on it. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a long moment; Killian watched in awe as the ripple grew, spreading to the corners of the screen and then _off _the screen, into the air. Definitely magic.

Finally, with a burst of white energy, Emma's hand dropped from the television set and the images on the screen reflected the truth. The pair of detectives watched as the video showed them a completely different set of events: namely, Rumplestiltskin pulling out his dagger and killing Zelena where she stood.

"Oh my God," Emma said, not believing it. For a moment the two sat in silence, until the ringing of the bell above the door signaled someone else had entered the station. Emma and Killian rose from their kneeling positions and rounded the corner to see who it was. Killian's breath caught in his throat as he saw his thought-to-be-reformed former nemesis.

"Crocodile…"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**The Enchanted Forest, Many Years Before the Dark Curse**

"King Edgar, it's her… she's here,"

The King didn't turn from where he was, looking out the palace's highest window at the snowy wasteland below him. He moved to put his hand on his sword.

"It's earlier than we expected," he said, still not moving; he didn't want the servant girl to see him worried.

"Are my daughters safe? Are Elsa and Anna safe?" Edgar asked, watching the ice splinter across the window panes.

"Yes… we are about to leave to go to the vault," the servant girl said. "Sir… are you sure you want to do this to them?"

"Tiana," the king never referred to the servants by their first names; this was serious. "I'm saving them the only way I know how," he said, a tear escaping his eye. Almost as an afterthought he added: "And thank you… for everything you've done for me and for my daughters. Your family has done more for mine than I can ever repay." The King waved his hand, dismissing Tiana.

She moved forward a few steps and grabbed his hand. She was breaking all the rules, but she didn't care. Tiana held Edgar's hand for only a moment before letting go and leaving him alone in his chambers. His wife would be there soon and Tiana knew they had much to discuss. Besides which, she had her own part to play in saving the Enchanted Forest from the Dark One… from Baba Yaga.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Storybrooke, Present Day**

"Charming, I think you took the wrong turn…" Mary Margaret said from the passenger seat of the pick-up. They'd been driving down some snow-covered old country road for upwards of a half an hour and the princess was beginning to worry.

"I did not! And besides, even if I did, it'd be your fault for making us drive out here in the first place… we don't need a new apartment!" It was the same argument the two had been having ever since Zelena was defeated, and there appeared to be no end in sight.

"Yes, we do! You, me, Henry, the baby, Emma, and now, God help us, maybe Hook cannot all live in my old studio apartment. We need our own place!" Mary Margaret seethed, whispering so as not to wake up their sleeping child in the backseat. "Now would you please pull over so we can figure out where we are!" Charming looked at her defiantly and sped up the car.

"No. We're going to find this place if it kills us. I do _not _need to ask for directions!"

"Charming, will you please not be a child about this! The roads icy and you're speeding to make a point. You're going to get us all killed!" Mary Margaret shouted, losing her nearly endless temper at last.

As if on cue a snow white figure stepped out into the middle of the road, clutching its arms around itself as if injured. Charming screamed and slammed on the brakes, though they did little given the iciness of the roads. Charming and Snow shared a terrified look as their car rammed into the figured.

A sonic wave seemed to reverberate through the car is slammed to a halt. The airbags exploded outwards, smashing into the passengers and the entire front of the car crumpled into oblivion. It was is if they'd hit a brick wall and not a person; like some sort of immovable force had just appeared in their path.

"What the hell?" Mary Margaret asked as the airbag deflated. She looked out the front window and her blood froze in her veins; the figure they'd run into was still there. Irrational, soul crushing fear erupted in her soul at the sight. No earthly force could possibly do what it had just done to their car. "The baby, she gasped, swiveling in her seat and looking at their infant son in the back. Miraculously, he seemed totally unfazed… it was almost as though he hadn't even noticed it.

Relieved, Mary Margaret turned her attention to David. He'd been knocked fully unconscious from the impact, yet he seemed relatively unharmed… which, come to think of it, didn't really make sense. They'd been traveling nearly sixty miles per hour and had come to a dead stop; they should all have been dead on impact.

Seeing that David wasn't going to wake up, Mary Margaret finally returned her attention the figure standing still in front of their destroyed car. The intense snow made it impossible to distinguish much about it, though the outline suggested it was a woman. Cautiously, she undid her seatbelt and opened her door.

"Hello?" she said, approaching the figure. "Are you alright?" No answer, only silence. "My name's Snow White. Are you hurt?" Still no answer. Worse yet, the storm seemed to be picking up. "Why don't you come home with us? You can't stay out here in the snow. You'll freeze!"

The figure whipped around at these last words and raised its hand. An icy blast shot out, smashing into Mary Margaret's stomach and sending her flying backwards into a tree. She sank into a snow pile at the bottom and watched as the figure laid its hand on the hood of the car and it began to turn to ice.

"Get away from my family!" Mary Margaret yelled, leaping to her feet and rushing at the figure. Whatever it was raised its hand once more, though this time towards the sky and not at her. A flash of white snow descended, blinding Mary Margaret for a few moments. When her vision cleared, the woman was gone… though the ice she'd left behind was not.

"Neal," Mary Margaret breathed in horror, watching as the hood of the car slowly turned to ice. She ran through the thick snow to the back seat, ripping the door open and pulling her son out. She deftly maneuvered him so he was balanced in one hand while pulling Charming's sword out of the back with her other; if the woman came back she'd be ready.

She skated around the back of the car towards Charming's door, which was swiftly turning to ice. She kicked it hard and the entire thing shattered, revealing her unconscious husband sitting behind a dashboard that was quickly freezing over. She couldn't be certain, but she had a gut feeling that if that ice reached her husband he'd freeze just as easily as the rest of the car.

"Charming, wake up!" she yelled, pulling on his clothes and using the sword to slice away his seatbelt. "Get out of the car!" He didn't respond, just kept on slumbering. Finally, desperately, she kissed him, hoping their true love would be enough to save him. Their lips met for a long moment and when she pulled away she expected to see him awaken and leap out of the car… but when that didn't happen she decided to turn to a less gentle tactic.

"Sorry about this!" she said, slamming the hilt of the sword into his jaw and watching it jostle sickeningly. His eyes flew open and he screamed in agony.

"What the hell?" he yelled, looking around.

"I'll explain later. Just get out of the damn car!" his wife screamed, pulling on his flannel shirt. He tumbled out of the car mere moments before his seat turned to ice. The pair watched in awe from the side of the road as their entire vehicle froze solid.

"Fine… just this once, I'll admit you were right," Charming said as the trio began their walk back to town. "We should have stopped to ask for directions."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Robin Hood had shifted his base of operations from Granny's to the Rabbit Hole after Marion had come back. The bar was less crowded, the drinks were cheaper, and the clientele was far less likely to judge him for what he said about his… relationships.

"Gimme a beer… actually, two beers," Robin heard someone say as they sat down beside him. He recognized the voice immediately: Mulan, the very first woman to ever be a part of his "Merry Men".

"Long time no see, warrior," he joked, looking at Mulan. It hadn't taken her long to decide that the Merry Men wasn't the right place for her and she'd left his group a few months before the new curse had brought them to Storybrooke. He'd asked about her around town, but it seemed that she'd gone off the radar.

"Same to you," she smiled, picking up her first beer and taking a long drink; if there was one thing she liked about this new world, it was the alcohol.

"We've been looking for you… some of us thought you hadn't come over with the curse."

"I've just been hiding out, that's all. I figured with the Wicked Witch out there I'd do well to lay low," she explained.

"I've never thought of you as one to run away from a fight," he said, drinking from his own beer.

"I've never thought of you as one to date someone when your wife was still alive," she retorted. It was a low blow and she knew it, but at the moment she didn't much care. He was left speechless for a moment as he searched for words.

"What's wrong with us?" he finally said, surprising Mulan. He was one of the few she'd told about her… complicated love situation.

"I wish I knew… but perhaps some are just not meant to find happiness," she mulled her words over for a moment before adding an addendum: "or rather, perhaps some are meant to find happiness and to lose it every time." Mulan said, grabbing her beers and disappearing; she was never in the mood to socialize, and that night was no exception. She left some cash on the table before leaving, deserting Robin Hood to her words and to his own thoughts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Author's Notes:**

** -Did you like it?**

** -Reviews are welcome!**

** -Mulan: whatever happened to her? Is there something you want to see her do in this story?**

** -Is Elsa a villain or just misunderstood?**

** -Are you excited for Tiana to be a part of Anna and Elsa's story?**

** -How will Rumple react to the town finding out he killed Zelena? How will the town react?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front**

CHAPTER 4

"It was you…" Emma Swan said as she and Killian Jones faced down Rumplestiltskin in the main office of the Sheriff's station.

"Quid pro quo," he responded wickedly. "She killed my son and I killed her. A life for a life." The room fell into silence until Hook finally spoke.

"What will Belle say?" he asked, the only combination of words that could possibly have made Gold feel guilty about what had happened.

"What Belle doesn't know won't hurt her," he said. "Now you two may not have the luxury of not getting hurt," Rumple said, summoning a fireball in one hand and pulling the Dark One's knife out of thin air in the other. "I was ready to change, but you two… you two had to go poking around." He pushed his hand forward through the air and sent the fireball flying straight at them.

"Duck!" Killian yelled, throwing himself on top of Emma and knocking them both to the ground. The fireball singed his jacket and whizzed through the bars of the holding cell, igniting the single mattress within. Killian rolled off of Emma in time to see another fireball flying towards them. It smashed into Emma's desk and transformed it into ashes.

"If there was ever an opportune time to use some magic, Swan, this would be it!" Killian said, leaping over the other desk and narrowly avoiding Rumple's third magical attack.

"Enough of this!" Rumple yelled, waving the knife in the air. Magic pulsed through the room, freezing Emma Swan and Killian Jones where they stood. "Now, who's first?" he asked with a sinister grin. "The pirate or the princess?" He swung the dagger around in tiny circles until it finally settled on Killian. "The pirate it is." He sauntered casually over to him and stared into the younger man's eyes with hatred.

"Sort of an anticlimactic way to end our rivalry, now isn't it?" He circled Killian like a vulture. "The question is: what do I do with you two? I can't very well kill you without the whole city finding out… unless I just make it look like the two lovebirds decided to skip town… maybe for New York, perhaps? I hear it's lovely this time of year."

He unfroze Killian for just a second, just long enough for the pirate to turn around and desperately call out Emma's name before he turned him to stone as he'd done with Zelena. A tear rolled down Emma's eyes as she watched helplessly, trying to summon some magic… _any_ magic. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Now, let's put you somewhere for safe keeping… I think the basement of the shop should do," Rumple said, raising his hand theatrically and flicking magic at Killian… or, at least, trying to. Somehow, and he couldn't quite pin it down, but somehow his magic felt different. _Oh well, _he thought, watching as the familiar cloud of smoke arose, _it's working now. _

When the dust cleared, however, the statue of Killian Jones was still in the room… along with someone else.

"Rumple?" Gold's heart sank as he heard the voice he knew all too well; the only voice he truly cared about hearing. Belle. "What are you doing?"

"Belle?" he stuttered, at a loss for words. No lies could save him now. "I… they…" He tried to explain, but Belle's attention was already caught up in something that lied behind him: the television, looping the image of him killing Zelena. The truth was plain in front of her, and she didn't like it one bit.

"I thought you'd changed," she said, her voice quivering and bitter. She wouldn't cry, she knew; at least not now. For now she was too angry. "You told me you were different and you lied… about everything. You're not the man I thought you were."

"Belle, please! I'm sorry!" Rumple said, dropping his dramatic nature and reverting to the person Belle had glimpsed all those years ago: the man behind the monster. He grabbed her arm and she spun on her heels, staring into his eyes.

"Go ahead, turn me to stone like you do to everyone else," she threatened, breaking away from his embrace. She looked at Emma's frozen form and suddenly felt something magically appear in her hands… something she'd read about so many times before… something that could stop Rumple.

"Belle, no. Just give me a chance, let me explain!"

"A chance! Rumple, I've given you countless chances and you've betrayed me every time. I should know by now: the lies never stop. You can never change!" She spat out the words angrily, knowing full well she'd regret them later… provided there was a later.

"Belle, don't go. I'll unfreeze her, see?" He waved a hand and Emma dropped from her paralysis as quickly as she'd entered it. She looked at Belle, urging her to use the object she'd magically placed in her hands.

Rumple took a step forward, getting as close to Belle as he dared. For a moment the room was totally silent, the three occupants and the statue lost in thought. Then Rumple spoke:

"There. All better," he said, trying to smooth over the fact that he was about to kill two _more _people when she'd gotten there.

"No… it's not." Belle gripped Rumple's free hand in her left as she uncorked the small vial of liquid with her right. Without breaking eye contact with Rumple she poured it onto his wrist; his eyes contorted in shock as the magic took effect, encircling him in a purple glow. The last emotion Belle could see in his eyes before he was totally frozen was deep, deep betrayal.

And so it was done; Belle broke down into agonized sobs and Emma came over to comfort her, holding her close silently praying she never had to go through what the poor woman in her arms did. For a few long moments no one spoke, both parties content to sit silently with their pain.

"What… what happened?" Belle asked, finally breaking the silence. "Why did Rumple bring me here?"

"Rumple didn't; I did," Emma explained, trying to find the right words to describe the magical process. "When Rumple froze me he - and more specifically his magic - became connected to me. I couldn't do too much in that state, but I _was _able to piggyback off of his magic." Belle gave her a confused look.

"For instance, he attempted to send Killian to the shop, but I was able to reverse it. Instead of sending someone from here to there, I made his magic bring someone from there to here. After that, there was just enough residual magic left over for me to transport the squid ink from the shop to your hand," Emma finished, finally daring to look back at Hook. "I just wish I had enough magic to bring him back… Rumple's magic is more powerful than mine and I don't think I can enchant Hook - or whatever - and turn him human."

"Maybe you don't have to," Belle said, her voice sounding slightly stronger than before. She rose to her feet and went to inspect the reformed pirate's new form.

"What do you mean?" Emma asked, standing beside Belle, who's heels gave made her roughly the same height as Emma.

"Maybe you can do what you did with me; piggyback on Rumple's magic," Belle said. Her voice sounded distant, as though she was lost in thought; Emma supposed that was how Belle got when she was being clever.

"How so?" Emma asked, staring into Hook's eyes… he looked like he was in pain.

"I mean, maybe you don't have to put a whole new enchantment on him. Maybe there's enough magic left over that all you need to do is redirect Rumple's spell; turn something else into a statue… someone else." Belle could hardly believe she was asking Emma to bring Killian Jones - the man who'd try to kill her twice - back to life and to turn her husband into a statue. _Desperate times… _she thought, watching Emma's eyes as the idea registered.

Without another word Emma put one hand on Killian's arm and her other hand on Rumple's. Belle watched as the white wisps of Emma's magic appeared, coursing from Killian through the savior and then into Rumple. A few agonizingly long moments later Hook dropped to the ground, finally free of his stone prison.

"Hook!" Emma said, dropping to her knees and taking the pirate's hands. He looked up at her gratefully.

"You had me scared for a moment there, lass," Hook said jokingly, his lips meeting Emma's. Their embrace broke after a moment and Hook turned his attention to Belle. "I guess I should thank you too… it was your idea that saved me." Belle simply nodded, her eyes not leaving Rumple's stone body.

"Belle, I'm sorry - but we'll sort this mess out and then turn him back. He's just… just too dangerous right now," Emma explained, though she knew Belle already understood that. Belle's intelligence was both her greatest gift and her greatest curse; sometimes she understood things _too _well.

Without another word Belle left the station and started the long walk back to the library, unable to bear the thought of going back to the shop alone. Hook and Emma were about to run after her when Emma's phone rang.

"Emma?" It was Charming. "We have a little problem on the country road outside of town. You and Hook wanna pick us up at Granny's and then head out there?" With a sigh Emma hung up the phone and looked at Killian.

"Mom and Dad need us. Let's put… him in the cell and then go," Emma said. Together she and the pirate pushed Rumple's statue into the cell, took his dagger from his hands, and locked the door.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

"What the hell happened?" Emma asked as her parents piled into the back seat of her car behind herself and Killian. They were both bloody and bruised all over the place.

"We got… attacked by someone - some_thing_ - on the old country road that runs out of town," Charming explained, not wanting his daughter to know just how terrifying the ordeal had been.

"Where's Neal?"

"We left him with Red in the diner. He's fine; didn't feel a thing," Snow said, laughing lightly despite herself.

"Good. Now you wanna explain to me what happened on the way?"

So Charming and Snow related the story of their strange encounter with the snow monster as Emma turned down the road that would lead them to the scene of the crime. They explained how they'd been miraculously uninjured by the crash, how Charming had nearly been frozen, and how they'd had to walk all the way back to the diner. By the time their story ended Emma was pulling up next to their frozen vehicle.

"I see…" the savior said, piling out of the car along with the other three passengers. She gave her parent's car a kick for good measure; frozen solid. "What the hell…" she said as she walked around it.

"Looks like this freak snow storm is doing more damage than we thought," Killian observed, rounding the car and standing next to Emma.

"No kidding," Charming said.

"Hey, look at this," Snow called. The other three whipped around and saw the princess disappearing into the trees at the side of the road.

"What is it?" Charming asked, climbing in after her. Emma and Hook weren't far behind.

"Look here: the rest of the trees are covered in snow, but these ones? They're frozen solid. I think when she escaped she went this way. We can track her," Snow said, shifting from mild mannered Mary Margaret's mindset into the Snow White that had survived by herself for years.

"After you," Hook said, motioning with his good hand for Snow to lead the way. With that the four trekked further into the forest, the snow beneath them deepening and the snow above them swirling more intensely.

"I can't see a thing out in this damn snow," Emma said, holding onto Hook's hand so as not to get lost… and, she supposed, for other reasons too.

"We've got to be getting close now!" Snow called over the howling wind. Emma had lived in Alaska for a brief period as a child and had once been caught in a white out; this, she observed, was much worse. As if in answer to Snow White's words a huge dump of snow fell on them, knocking them to the ground.

"What the…" Killian asked, picking himself up. "Emma?" he called out. No answer.

. . . . . . . . . . .

"Hook!" Emma Swan called out after righting herself. She felt like she'd been run over by the snow, and now she was having trouble getting her bearings. She stumbled around for a few moments before smacking head first into a thick wall of ice. She turned to her left and met another one, then another, then another. She panicked as she realized she was fully encased in it.

She scraped some snow away from the walls, allowing her limited visibility. Emma looked out and could just make out the form of Killian Jones… and someone else she didn't recognize.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Emma?" Hook asked, trying to see who exactly was approaching him through the dense snow fall. She was blonde like Emma, but she was wearing something very different… a dress it looked like, not Emma's signature jeans and t-shirt. The figure reached a hand out towards Killian, who realized just a moment too late that the woman in front of him was not Swan.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Hook!" Emma called through the walls of her ice prison, watching helplessly as a woman who was not her reached out and grabbed him by the jacket. Whoever it was came closer to him… to close for Emma to like at all. She pounded her fists into the ice for only a moment before realizing all that would get her was a broken hand.

"You've got this, Emma," she said to herself, placing her palms on the ice and trying to imagine heat; a roaring fire, the dragon she'd fought, the time she'd saved Regina from her own burning home. Finally the ice beneath her hands began to sizzle, slowly melting away. She thought harder, this time about a different kind of fire: the spark she and Killian had.

In a split second the entire wall turned to water and Emma was freed.

. . . . . . . . . . .

"Please, don't," Hook begged as the shockingly strong figure placed a single, horrifically cold hand on top of his heart. "Stop…" he pleaded, trying to look into the figures completely white eyes. It said and did nothing, its only discernible movement the shaking of its hand as ice crystals began to shoot out of it and leech into Killian's heart. His vision blurred and his breathing slowed, his life beginning to slip away… until a fireball flew out of nowhere and smashed the figure away from him.

Killian dropped to the ground gasping for air as Emma leapt over him in hot pursuit of the woman who'd just nearly killed him. He rolled over to see her disappear into the white storm, her hands glowing a fiery red.

"Hook! What happened?" The next voice Hook heard belonged to Snow White, who explained that she and her husband had been trapped in icy prisons just as Emma had. Apparently they had also melted when Emma escaped.

"That… creature… it did… something to me. Emma went after it," he gasped.

"Charming stay with Hook. I'm going to help my daughter." With that Snow White leapt over Hook and followed Emma into whatever laid beyond the white snow.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Author's Notes:**

** -Did you like it?**

** -Reviews are welcome!**

** -Is Emma ever gonna get really good at magic?**

** -Is Elsa a villain or just misunderstood?**

** -Rumple: redeemable or totally evil?**

** -Was Belle justified in freezing Rumple or should she have given him another chance?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Once Upon a Time Season 4 Part 1 - Cold Front**

**CHAPTER 5**

Call it cruel irony, but, much like the man she'd lost, Regina Mills had taken to spending her fair share of nights alone in the Rabbit Hole downing beers and shooting pool. Tonight was no exception.

"Gimme another," Regina said to the bartender, lining up her shot and sinking the 4 ball and the 6 ball. She smiled and then, hearing a pair of high heels clicking behind her, turned around to see what new patron had just entered the bar.

"The usual." Belle happened to be the third person who'd taken to passing her nights in the Rabbit Hole with a beer at her side after Emma and Hook had returned from the past. Perhaps it was just a leftover character trait from her Lacey phase, but Belle found the place comforting and familiar.

"You got it," the bartender, who happened to be the very same sheriff of Nottingham that had once had his tongue ripped out by Rumplestiltskin, said. He poured her a beer and slid it across the counter to her. "No charge," he grumbled.

"Anything for a pretty girl…" Regina mumbled under her breath, lining up her next shot. Belle rolled her eyes at Regina's words and came to sit on the edge of the pool table near Regina.

"Actually, miss Mayor, I get my free drinks the same way you do," Belle said, picking up one of the cues.

"How's that?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow at Belle as the brunette bent down over the table and lined up a shot.

"The guys here are sort of afraid of me after… well, after my husband tore out one of their tongues." Belle gave the cue a deft shove and sent the 3 ball and the 7 ball flying into the holes. "I guess Lacey did have a _few _useful skills," Belle smiled, more to herself than to Regina.

"So what are you doing in here, bookworm? I didn't think you were much of one for alcohol," Regina sneered, fighting her old impulses to talk down to people.

"Well, for starters, I just learned that my new husband murdered Zelena… I guess we can blame Lacey for the fact that I find this place comforting." Regina knew she should have been more shocked at the revelation that Rumple had been the cause of her sister's death, but she really wasn't; in some ways she'd always known. "So what, may I ask, are you doing here?" Belle questioned, trying to change the subject.

"Same thing as you I suppose… trying to get over a guy." Just the word "guy" was enough to make Regina wince in pain and try to fight back tears. She picked up her beer and retreated to a table, content to let Sean Herman and his friends take over their game; Belle soon joined her.

"I'm never one to condone alcohol as a solution to one's problems, but tonight I'll make an exception," Belle said, clinking her glass to Regina's in a mock toast.

"You know what the worst part of it is?" Regina asked, downing the last of her drink.

"The whole thing?" Belle said, only half-joking. She motioned to the bartender to get her and the Un-Evil Queen another round.

"No… the worst part is I'm not even angry… and angry would be so much easier than whatever this is. It's like…"

"You don't have to explain it to me, Regina. I understand. I was there for thirty years. I'm back there again right now. The question is: what are you going to do next?" Belle asked.

"I think… I think I need to get out of town for a while. I don't know what I want exactly but I know I don't want to go back to being the Evil Queen. I'm putting that behind me even if it means putting everyone here behind me as well… at least for a while."

"So where will you go?" Belle asked, nursing the new drink that had just been delivered to her.

"Not sure yet. Just… away," Regina said sadly, looking out through the window at the town she'd created.

"Any chance you're looking for a companion?" Belle asked. Regina turned to her, shocked.

"Why? Are you offering?" the mayor questioned, not believing that the woman she'd imprisoned for thirty years wanted to take a road trip with her.

"Look, I don't have much in this town anymore _except _for Rumplestiltskin, and right now he's the one thing I need some time away from. Besides, sometimes journeys are better when taken with a… with a friend," Belle said, tentatively putting her hand on Regina's. They shared a sad glance.

"Sure. Why not? Just don't bore me with your books," Regina said, finishing off her drink and leaving. She wasn't sure if she was ready to call Belle a "friend" just yet, but she also knew that the librarian was the one person who sort of understood her: someone who'd lost just as much in life as Regina had. They might not be friends yet, but at least they got each other.

_Besides, _Regina thought, _It'll be nice to have another driver._

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

"We lost her." Charming could tell, just from those three words, that his wife was really, genuinely frightened… which meant, if he was smart, he should be too. "The snow's too thick, the wind's too cold… we'll have to try and find her tomorrow," Snow said, wrapping her arms around her husband for warmth. He held her close and shared a worried look with Emma.

"That's good. For now, let's all just try and get back to town without freezing to death. Hook isn't looking too good." The three members of the Charming Family turned and looked at their companion, who sat shivering in the snow. Emma immediately stooped down to her knees and looked into his eyes.

"Hook, listen to me. There's something I have to go do. David and Mary Margaret are going to take you back to town and get you warmed up," Emma said, placing a hand on his cheek; it felt colder than the air around her. She didn't like the idea of leaving him, but there was something she had to do… something that might be essential to protecting them all.

"Where are you going?" Charming asked as Emma stood to face them.

"I need to talk to Rumplestiltskin… and Regina," Emma said, skeptical of her own plan.

"Emma," Snow said, grabbing her daughter by the arm. "Be… be careful, ok?"

"Aren't I always?" Emma smiled despite herself at this joke. It was just so… so _like _her to need to talk to the only two people who hated her guts. _Oh well, _she thought, fishing her keys out of her pocket, _I guess you can't be the savior without collecting a few enemies along the way. _

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

**New Orleans, Present Day**

"Doctor Stevens? She's awake." Doctor Aaron Stevens was about as busy as doctors come, and his new intern, Samantha, was proving to be an astonishingly cryptic speaker.

"What? Who's awake?" Stevens questioned. He was running on roughly a half an hour of sleep and was feeling nowhere near as patient as doctors are expected to.

"The Jane Doe. She's awake, sir." The orange juice in Stevens' hand clattered to the floor, splashing everywhere and covering his Doc Martens in a sticky orange goo; he seemed not to notice.

"What the hell, Samantha? Are you talking about the Jane Doe I think you are? The coma patient Jane Doe?" Stevens questioned, stepping around his intern and speed-walking down the hallway towards the intensive care unit.

"That's the one, sir," Samantha said, struggling to keep up with her boss, who was now running down the hall dodging orderlies and nurses. Without another word the pair made their way to the intensive care unit and burst into the Jane Doe's room.

"She's gone mad, sir!" Doctor Stevens was shocked senseless when, upon walking into the room, he saw the old woman struggling madly to escape. Several orderlies were working to hold her in place, though they appeared to be losing to the frail looking woman.

"Give her a sedative, now!" Stevens commanded. Samantha leapt from his side and loaded a syringe. As she approached the thrashing woman she took in, for the first time really, her appearance: haggard, old. Her gray, stringy hair clung to her body, reached down to her elbows. It musn't have been washed in ages. Her wrinkled, wart filled face sneered in every direction and her sharp, pointed hands thrashed to and fro, the nails reaching several inches off each finger.

_Looks like a witch… _Samantha thought as she found, with some difficulty, a vein to put the sedative in. She pushed the plunger and the medicine entered the woman's body and began to have its effect.

Suddenly the Jane Doe wrenched her hand from Samantha's grip and swirled it around in the air, as if reaching for something that wasn't there. She was drifting quickly out of consciousness and, it seemed to Samantha, was trying to do something big before she went out.

As the old woman's eyelids finally fell she flicked her wrist to the left. Waves of energy seemed to radiate off of it, slamming into the orderly and throwing him through the wall and into the hallway outside. Samantha shared a terrified look with Doctor Stevens as the pair stood for a moment, too shocked to react.

"What the hell was that?" Samantha asked as she and Doctor Stevens moved to analyze the old woman's hand.

"I have no idea."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Storybrooke, Present Day**

Emma was, despite being the saviour, fairly out of control in her magic abilities. She knew from Regina that she possessed nearly untold power, but for as long as she'd known about it she truly hadn't ever _learned _how to access it… which, up until her dual with Rumplestiltskin, hadn't been much of a problem. Now, however, she had to get better; she couldn't let someone beat her again.

"Let's make this quick, can we?" Regina Mills said as she and Emma Swan entered the station that night. "I have… plans for tomorrow." Emma raised an eyebrow at this as she unlocked the door to the cell that the stone Rumplestiltskin was being held in.

"What kind of plans?" Emma asked, trying to tread lightly. Regina hadn't killed her for bringing Marion back, but they were still on relatively thin ice.

"Well if you must know, miss Swan, I'm planning on taking a little trip out of town…" Regina considered telling her that she wouldn't be making that trip alone, but she thought it best to protect that information… at least for the moment.

"Oh…" Emma said, at a loss for words. She hadn't ever meant to hurt Regina, much less drive her out of town, and now that she had… well, Emma didn't know what that meant for her. "I'm… I'm sorry if it's because of -"

"Contrary to what you might believe, 'savior', not everything that happens in this town revolves around you. My reasons for leaving are my own and I'll thank you to not stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

"I'm sorry, Regina," Emma said, genuinely making an effort to apologize.

"Yes, well, we all make mistakes." Regina was anxious to change the topic. She knew she would forgive Emma, but she wasn't ready to now… maybe not for a while. "Let's get on with this. What's your plan, exactly?"

Truth be known, Emma hadn't really thought of her plan yet. She knew she needed to practice magic that could overpower Rumplestiltskin's, but she didn't know _how; _that's why she'd called Regina.

"I was actually kind of hoping you could help me with that," Emma explained, motioning to the statue of the Dark One standing a few feet away from them. "I want to take the unfreeze him and then… and then take the dagger." Regina looked shocked.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I want to unfreeze him."

"Listen, Swan, I spent decades trying to get the best of this little imp and you did it in one day. Now you're telling me you want to undo all that work? I don't think so."

"Look, Regina, I'm going to do this either way, but whether or not you help me could mean keeping him here or losing control of him," Emma said, trying to reason with her frenemy. Regina thought over this for a long moment.

"Fine… on one condition."

"What…?" Emma said, skeptical. Regina's "conditions" had a habit of spelling bad news for Emma and her family.

"You let me hold onto the dagger afterwards. Let me take it out of town tomorrow and keep him from using magic… at least while I'm gone." Emma chewed this over in her mind, unsure of what it could mean for her… especially given the way the relationship between the two women had been going recently.

"I don't know…" Emma said, using the voice she usually reserved for Henry; the voice she reserved for people she wanted to trust.

"Look, Swan, I haven't killed you - or anyone else in your family - yet. Why would I start now?" Regina asked. Truthfully, she herself could think of a million reasons to start, but she wasn't about to share them with the savior.

"Fine. But you have to bring it back when you come back," Emma said. Regina nodded to this and turned her attention to Rumple.

"Now, you use your magic to unfreeze him and I'll use mine to hold his hand in place. I won't be able to manage it for long, but I should be able to hold out long enough for you to take the dagger," Regina explained. "Now, are you ready or are we going to stand here all night?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Emma said, half laughing and half scoffing. Without another word she took Rumplestiltskin's hand and began trying to feel her magic; to feel herself coming in from the cold and thawing out, to feel tense muscles relax… to feel a statue turning back into a human. Regina looked on in wonder as Emma's white magic began to pulsate around and flow into the Dark One, a rather incongruous image. Slowly, the tendrils of the savior's magic wrapped around his arms and legs, slipping into his ears and then out of his nostrils, mingling themselves with every fiber of his being and transforming him back into a man.

"Good job," Regina said, remarkably calm for what she was about to do. She raised her hands and her own purple magic appeared, a cloud of it flowing out of her hands and wrapping around Rumplestiltskin's like a chain. It held its place as he unfroze and returned to life, fully aware of all that had transpired since Emma had first transformed him.

"What are you two doing?" he asked, his eyes flashing black as they had when he'd been the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest. Without answering Emma summoned her magic to her hand and reached through the purple haze surrounding his own. "Stop! Get the hell away from me!" he shouted, struggling in vain to produce some magic - any magic - of his own.

"Sorry, old friend," Regina said, sounding genuinely sorrowful. They'd been through so much together - understood so much about each other - that Regina couldn't help but see herself in the fallen man. He shared a sorrowful look with his former pupil as Emma plucked the dagger from his hand and immediately both her magic and Regina's evaporated; after all, it was no longer needed. Without another word Mr. Gold sat down on the bed in the cell, defeated. After 300 years the Dark One had finally, actually been defeated.

"I think this is yours now," Emma said with a ragged smile, handing the dagger over to Regina; she took it without ever moving her eyes from Rumplestiltskin, from her old friend-turned-nemesis-turned-friend again.

"Thank you," Regina said after a long beat. "Thank you for trusting me." Without another word Regina turned and left the cell, intent on going home after a thoroughly exhausting day. With one last look at Gold Emma turned and followed her, locking the cell on her way out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Author's Notes:**

** -Did you like it?**

** -Reviews are welcome!**

** -Is Emma ever gonna get really good at magic?**

** -Regina and Belle: your new BroTP?**

** -Rumple: redeemable or totally evil?**

** -Can Emma and Regina ever be friends or is it a lost cause?**


End file.
